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Design Inspiration (October 2016) — Smashing Magazine

Whenever I work on an illustration, the objects don’t always have to look like they do in real life. They can look like how I perceive them in my mind. Breaking away from reality is the privilege you have as an illustrator. There are, in fact, no boundaries. Illustrating is creativity in its pure form. It is endless and that’s why I love it so much.

Further Reading on SmashingMag:

Pokedex

Drilled down to just the basics. Great work. I love the hard edged clean shadows and the high contrast of the bright colors palette.

Secret Woods

With September being the new August here in Belgium, it’s too early for me to start thinking about Fall, but that’s not a valid reason to exclude a beautiful photo like this. The mystery wondering is strong in this one. Perfect path to cruise on. Very inviting indeed!

Fragment d’éternité

Joy Division

It has been a while since I last added something from Swissted. Joy Division at lyceum theatre, 1980. When you turn an indie rock show flyer into international typographic style poster this is the result.

Colorful Geometric

Wonderful experiment with colorful geometric shapes. Almost looks like some modern apartment building with terraces. Love the highlight and shadow effect created by such perfect overlays and transparencies, in combination with only a bare minimum of gradients to keep the overal style extra clean.

Ready for Takeoff

These kind of illustrations are just absolutely fantastic. They look straight out of a 60s magazine. A wonderful source to study all the texture overlays and shadows. Photographically realistic shown in every detail, wrinkle, glow or sparkle. It’s all there.

Her Living Room

Part of series of illustrations for an exhibition that portray the fashionable lives of the Shanghai women in the 30s. Love how the dress is constructed with a beautiful pattern. It immediately grabbed my attention.

Kinderdijk, Holland

Nomad Hill

Inspiring patterns collage. Great color selection as well. It’s amazing what you can achieve as a result starting from simple shapes when you apply the right colors, and the right composition. It all looks so simple, but it is not.

Fire In The Sky — Arto

FM Magazine — Fast Changing

Illustration for FM Magazine about companies and the fast changing environment. Most notably in this one are the bright colors that are working well together. Love this early 90s looking pattern in the shoe and the book at the book at the bottom right. You can find this kind of pattern (named ‘Capsules’) in Adobe Illustrator’s ‘Basic Graphics Textures’ pattern library which you can load from the Swatches panel via ‘Open Swatch Library > Patterns’.

Cosmópolis Pt.4

One of the nice collection of illustrations that show a famous city. This one is about San Francisco. An inspiring color palette and many small details to discover. Beautiful flat 2D illustration style with a subtle depth created through colors.

Het Financieele Dagblad II

The colors used here are so wonderful. The detail in the faces and the hair are quite amazing even on such a small size. The proportions are far from real which adds extra strength in this illustration. Just look at that huge body as he seems to grow out of the cubicle, compared to his tiny feet and hands. I think the message gets across just perfectly.

Apex Experience

Editorial illustration that matches an article focused on body language and behavior during a flight. Many nice subtleties to discover here. The expression on the faces is inspiring as those are so difficult to get right.

Paul Simon — Graceland

Eau de Paris

The special style of Rick Berkelmans aka Hedof. An illustration for the 2016 campaign for Parisian public water company Eau de Paris. The colors, and the overwhelming round shapes sets this one apart. There’s an animation as well created by Benjamin Moreau.

Staircase den Bell

Looking up or looking down, it’s all part of the thinking process of how you would get an awesome shot. This one of the staircase of “den Bell” Antwerp is just an example of that. Just fascinating to look at.